The fact that Brokeback Mountain contained very little sex was applauded at the time of the film's release as a masterstroke of discretion on the part of director Ang Lee.

Homophobic protesters didn't have too much to get in a pickle about; cinephiles were treated to a sensitive drama that didn't fall back on easy titillation.

But some Brokeback fans evidently yearned for a more graphic approach, and have taken steps to compensate for the film's dearth of under-canvas action. Numerous steamy additions to the tale have been sent to Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer prize-winning author of the short story Lee's film was based on.

And she's not happy about it. The film, she says, has become "the source of constant irritation in my private life".

"There are countless people out there who think the story is open range to explore their fantasies and to correct what they see as an unbearably disappointing story," she told The Wall Street Journal.

"They constantly send ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of the story to me, expecting me to reply with praise and applause for 'fixing' the story. They certainly don't get the message that if you can't fix it, you've got to stand it."

Despite - or perhaps because of - the death of one of the film's stars, Heath Ledger, in 2008, the story continues to exert a considerable pull over popular culture. Earlier this year it was announced that the tale is to become an opera, to debut in New York in 2013.

At the time, however, the composer Charles Wuorinen was keen to emphasise that it was Proulx's prose that was his main inspiration: "Ever since encountering Annie Proulx's extraordinary story I have wanted to make an opera on it."